Homeowners face £50,000 fine after plumbing fail!

A retired couple has recently received the shock of a lifetime in the form of a £50,000 fine. This was after local authorities discovered that their poo had actually been piped into a nearby stream. And not just recently either, but for the past thirty-two years!

Homeowners Brian and Velda Holland-Jones were completely unaware of the issue until inspectors from Thames Waters arrived at their door. There, they stated that the couple’s home was actually the source of a sewage leak.

Thinking back, seventy-nine-year-old Brian described that back in 1985, the couple had their kitchen refurbished. And, as part of the work, the upstairs toilet exit pipe was relocated. However, this was not done correctly by workers and the wastewater was left flowing into the surface water drain.

Thames Water stated to the elderly couple that they had twenty-one days to fix the issue. And, if the problem wasn’t solved, they could face a fine of up to fifty thousand pounds. Or even face prison time!

Grandfather Brian stated: “I had two gentlemen turn up at my door one day and tell us that our poo had been polluting the nearby river, what do you say to that?”

“For 32 years our poo, washing waste, all of it had been going in Paine’s Brook because a sewage pipe wasn’t properly connected.”

He described: “I mean you go to the loo and you imagine it goes to the correct place, for years our leavings was pouring out where it shouldn’t.”

“The inspectors demonstrated the problem to me by opening a surface water drain in next door’s garden and flushing coloured crystals in my loo, sure enough, the coloured water whizzed past.”

Thames Water added: “No one wants foul water from homes emptying directly into their local river, so it’s great to hear Mr Holland-Jones has taken such swift action.”

“We’ve still got more to do though to trace more misconnections in our region.”

“That’s why it’s really important that anyone having an extension built, or is carrying out plumbing work, employs a reputable plumber.”

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